Ferndale, California, is called the Victorian Village. Tourists stroll around and marvel at the quaint loveliness and the friendliness of the town. But that’s just a good front, pretend community. Underneath the façade is the typical small town cesspool of resentments, feuds, bitterness, enmities and the like, some going back generations. In April of 1992, a major earthquake hit, inflicting terrible damage. Instantly, in that time of crisis the resentments and harsh judgments of one another were set aside in order that neighbors might help neighbors, no questions asked. Real community happened amid the rubble. But as soon as the height of the crisis was over, the town went back to its old ways, typical of humanity: pretend community. Lovely on the outside, ugly on the inside.

Our Lord Jesus shows us another way, a way into real community that is not based on short-lived crises, but is intentional, and is something we seek over the long haul. For in the gospel tonight, after he has knelt down and washed his disciples’ feet, we will hear Jesus say, I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you. Jesus did not mean that we should all keep busy washing each other’s feet. That is too literalistic a reading. What he did mean is that we are invited to seek real community in the way Jesus does: by servanthood, not domination. What I think it really means is that we are called to stop judging one another for any reason whatsoever. Most especially it means, quit demanding that others live up to our expectations and instead, accept them just the way they are. If we are willing to do that we will enter into the joy of real community.

Consider more carefully the action of our Lord’s self-humbling in washing the feet of his disciples, a service, by the way, that in ancient times was always assigned to slaves and servants. Reading the gospels’ descriptions of the behaviors and questions of the disciples during the three years they followed him, we might wonder if Jesus made a mistake calling those twelve. Talk about shattered expectations! These were men who often didn’t have clue as to what Jesus was really teaching them at any point in their relationship, and they certainly weren’t prepared for what was about to happen Friday noon at Calvary. Yet, in spite of the dim bulb nature of their grasp of discipleship, Jesus washes their feet. All twenty-four of them.

Among the twelve were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the guys with the tempers so hot and lightning quick they were called "sons of thunder." James and John were also the disciples with the gall to ask Jesus for the places of honor in the coming Kingdom, thereby incurring the wrath and resentment of the other ten. Clearly, they didn’t know how far from the mark of true spirituality they were, but Jesus washes their feet.

Among the twelve was Peter, Mr. Engage-Mouth-Before-Brain-is-in-Gear. With typical bluster he tries to prevent Jesus from washing his feet. And Jesus knows that in a dark night of cowardice, this night, Peter will deny ever having known him, and will do so not once, not twice, but three times. But Jesus washes his feet.

And there was Judas, named Iscariot, that odd name probably derived from the name of the radical murdering Jewish terrorist group he belonged to. Judas stole from the disciple group’s money bag. And this very night he was going to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and do it with a kiss. And yet Jesus kneels down before this violent, conniving thief, and washes the betrayer’s feet, and then in moment, shared the bread of the first ever communion with him.

I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you. No, it’s not the literal that we’re after. It is the following of the spiritual example: setting aside resentments and letting go of self-pity over unmet expectations is the only way we will ever truly help, serve, or love the people God has placed in our families or our church. So the question is, who in your family, or here in the church do you have a problem with? Who are you resentful of because they failed to live up to your expectations? Let it go. That’s real foot washing. Let it go! For it is only when we get our harsh opinions out of the way that we can finally begin to see others for who they really are. And who are they? Well, in Christ, they are truly brothers and sisters. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, You must love each other, just as I have loved you. The martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer echoed Christ when he wrote, "God didn’t give us our brothers and sisters in the church to complain about." The foot-washing of real community happens when, humbled before their broken human reality, we love others as Christ loves us.

Therefore, as we prepare to confess our sins and receive our Lord’s body and blood tonight, let us pause and get real about our situation. Even now, as with the first disciples, Christ sets aside his glorious robed dreams of what he’d hoped we be, humbles himself in our presence, comes to us in simple bread and wine, full of forgiveness and mercy. He is not impressed with us, but does what is greater: loves us as we are, turning us spiritual dim bulbs, arrogant fools, braggarts, cowards, and betrayers into the church—a real community, intent on doing for others exactly what he has done for us. Amen.